From February 2007 through December 2011, two Colby College graduates, one a Yankees fan and one a Red Sox fan provided unsolicited rants, second-guessing, insight, and commentary on the Yankees, Red Sox, and all things baseball.
57 months, 1,645 posts, 12,680 comments - Thanks for the memories.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The Era Starts Tonight

Pat was going to write tonight from the undisclosed location, but knowing that I'm already way ahead on posts and topics, he decided to write 5/9 of it and take the rest of the night off. He was satisfied with his comment the other day so he decided he deserved some time off. Yes, that is a reference to JD Drew's game tonight.

Tonight's an exciting night, and it's something we didn't get much of a chance to talk about because the trade deadline was over the weekend this year. But everyone was talking about how the Red Sox did virtually nothing at the trade deadline. I disagree. They picked up Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who is one player Theo Epstein and I have shared wood for over the course of the last three or so years.

The guy is not exactly young anymore - he's four days younger than me - but he's still almost 18 months younger than infantile prospect with tremendous upside #46. He's had many difficulties since being traded to Texas in 2007, such as platooning with Gerald Laird, not playing more than a third of a season, and most notably having a spectacular case of the yips where he couldn't throw the ball back to the pitcher. But someone get the guy a good hypnotist, and it very well might be the same old G. Still can hit, still has power, still has a strong arm.

Saltalamacchia, as you hopefully recall, was traded with Ron Mahay for Mark Teixeira in 2007. He is a former first-round draft pick. He was mentioned in the same breath as Weiters and Mauer for a period of time, and he was the guy who created quite a clamor on How Youz Doin Baseball when the options were to trade Buchholz for this guy or suffer through another two years of Varitek. I didn't want Laird. I didn't want Teagarden. I didn't want Max Ramirez. I wanted this guy.

And here we are, his value is the lowest it's ever been, and the Red Sox got him. At best, this guy could give the team leverage when negotiating for Victor Martinez and/or hopefully getting rid of the guy who doesn't realize it's not hockey because he's back on track to stardom. At worst, he's Jeremy Hermida, a guy failing to resurrect his career in Boston. But this guy for a pair of minor leaguers and cash? What a steal.

The comeback and the beginning of the Jarrod Salalamacchia era in Boston started unofficially tonight, as he was activated and came in at the end of the blowout. But he's starting tomorrow. The era officially starts Thursday night.

Between the beginning of the Saltalamacchia debut and the third episode of Jersey Shore, there is absolutely no reason to watch the worst programming on television, otherwise known as preseason football Thursday night.

Bill Hall now has more homers in 235 AB's than JD Drew has in 343 AB's. Also, their OPS and OPS+ are nearly identical with JD Drew (.805 and 112) with an inconsequential lead over Hall (.804 and 110). And Bill Hall cost $65 million less.

Also, the Yankees are a pain in the ass. Last nights game was a classic Yankees win. Down big, on the road, the other team's best starter. And they comeback. The bad news is it looks like the wild card is the only option for the Sox. The good news is that they're playing much, much better baseball of late.

I thought you guys were gonna ask me about JD Drew having the second-highest OPS of all AL outfielders. The argument against Bill Hall is one that is usually in capital letters, punctuated with !'s and 1's: "SAPMLE SIZE!!1"

Waking up this morning to see "Yankees comeback" on my SportsCenter left-hand bar was devastating. Looks like no matter what happens, we're in the midst of the inevitable annual Yankees 20-5 stretch when it's impossible to make up ground.

Say you owned a restaurant that had five great chefs who rotated in every night. The ingredients have been better than expected (although no one can find the prime rib) and therefore consistently delicious dishes are being served up. All that needs to be done is to deliver the food to the table and everything is great.

However, your waiter dropped the food while on his way to the table, bringing his dropped food percentage up to 20% of the time. Would you still let him carry the food? Further, what if this waiter spent all of last year coming dangerously close to dropping all the food, only to catch his balance at the last second, then demand to be on salary? Would this factor into the decision? Finally, you have a youngster at your disposal who finally hit puberty and can therefore be legally employed to carry food to the table; plus, he can literally run 99mph with the food to the table without dropping it. Would you STILL let him carry the food???

And the most important question...would you re-hire this waiter for next year at the prices he demands?